[Released] AVPro Movie Capture

Hi Everyone,

AVPro Movie Capture version 3.1 has just been released!

You can find the updated version on the Asset Store here:

• Full version
• Free version (10 seconds limit recording)

and more information and demos are available on our website.

Changes include:

Upgrade Notes

• If upgrading from version 2.x then you must delete all of the files for any previous copies of AVPro Movie Capture in your project before importing this version. This is because many files have been renamed and the folder structure has changed significantly.

Improvements

• A preview of the captured frames is now displayed
• Pause during offline rendering now pauses Unity by settings Time.timeScale to zero
• Various minor UI and other improvements

Bug fixes

• Fixed deferred rendering support for stereo ODS component
• Fixed motion blur timing and sample count issues
• Fixed disabling MSAA when using deferred rendering with stereo ODS component
• Fixed some anti-aliasing and cubemap depth states not being set sometimes
• Added a workaround for a bug in Unity 5.6.0 - 5.6.1 (#902409)
• Noted a bug in Unity 2017.1.0 - 2017.2.0 in CaptureFromCamera360 that causes the background to render white when camera clear mode is set to solid colour

Thanks,

 

Hey @AndrewRH, I have a question regarding the real time video capture of one user and in real time displaying that to another user. How would I be able to implement something like this?
Thanks in Advance!
P.S Keep up the great work! Awesome Unity package will definetly buy if this implementation is possible!

 

Yes, you can do this by combining AVPro Movie Capture and AVPro Video. It isn't a built-in feature, but if you use it with ffmpeg to create the video stream, then it is possible.

In AVPro Movie Capture you can set the output mode to "named pipe" instead of a file. You can then use ffmpeg to read from this named pipe and create a video stream (eg HLS). AVPro Video can then be used to connect to this stream and render it on screen.

Thanks,

 

Hi Everyone,

AVPro Movie Capture version 3.12 has just been released!

You can find the updated version on the Asset Store here:

• Full version
• Free version (10 seconds limit recording)

and more information and demos are available on our website.

Changes include:

Upgrade Notes

• If upgrading from version 2.x then you must delete all of the files for any previous copies of AVPro Movie Capture in your project before importing this version. This is because many files have been renamed and the folder structure has changed significantly.

Bug fixes

• CaptureFromTexture and CaptureFromCamera360 components now no longer accumulate and render when capture is paused

Minor

• Added helpful warning when using the profiler with 360 Camera ODS component. Have the profiler completely disabled (disable record, close the window, remove the tab and restart Unity), otherwise it will use too much memory when using ODS component.
• Added new “about” section to inspector
• Added a better check for plugin version mismatches
• Some improved texture cleanup and discards
• Improved camera 360 demo script to make cubes fall away instead of disappear

Thanks,

 

Hi Everyone,

AVPro Movie Capture version 3.14 has just been released!

You can find the updated version on the Asset Store here:

• Full version
• Free version (10 seconds limit recording)

and more information and demos are available on our website.

Changes include:

Upgrade Notes

• If upgrading from version 2.x then you must delete all of the files for any previous copies of AVPro Movie Capture in your project before importing this version. This is because many files have been renamed and the folder structure has changed significantly.

Improvements

• Added new UI button to view the captured video immediately instead of via Windows Explorer
• Improved support for capturing when using OpenGL emulation, which can happen when having the build platform not set to Windows Standalone.
• CaptureFromScreen component generates less garbage by caching the YieldInstructionImproved encoded time display
• Improved error messages
• Improvements to UI

Bug fixes

• Fixed bug where capture window could not set the file name or extension
• Fixed bug where Capture Window would add UnityAudioOutput component to the main camera instead of to the GameObject with the AudioListerner
• Fixed the encoded time information for real-time captures

Thanks,

 

So is it difficult to do something like this? Also would this work on mobile?

 

What about UI? I can select only one camera as source but what if I need to capture multi camera view? For example main camera and UI camera simultaneously.

 

Yes it is quite tricky to do, but you can probably play around with the trial/free version and try to get it working. It wouldn't work on mobile. AVPro Movie Capture currently only supports Windows desktop.

 

Currently you can only do a single capture at once. You can select a specific camera to capture, or you can just capture the entire screen, so it is possible to capture just the UI by itself, or together with the main game, or the main game without the UI. We plan to add simultaneous capture from multiple sources very soon.

Thanks,

 

Hey guys,

Great plugin, very useful and professional. Hands down best plugin on the market(and I've tried a number of those now).

I'm experiencing one issue with a video that is recorded. And I'm more than sure it is no fault of the plugin itself but more fault of setting up the camera/s.

I'm trying to playback captured 360 Videos in another project for Google Cardboard and anytime I play back the video everything seems just way too large.

I get a feeling that I'm a small thing next to some huge object(yet I know that the object is meter by meter large)

I've tried just about every setting there is with Cameras between two projects, and have no more clues on how to scale the video down(of scale the camera view up) such that everything looks to human size.

I'm using Unity's skybox projection shader to playback the videos on the skybox.

Maybe you can help me with pointing me to right settings of the camera(recording/playback) to make it feel better?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the nice feedback

So you captured 360 videos in AVPro Movie Capture and are playing to play them in AVPro Video but they're not appearing right?

Perhaps you could share a screenshot of the original video and what you're seeing in Unity?

Or you could email us too, unitysupport address at: http://www.renderheads.com/contact

Thanks,

 

This is a very important feature for me because of screen capture is limited to display resolution. Any date for this update? One month or one year?

 

Between 1-2 months I'd say.
What do you mean the screen capture is limited to display resolution? If you need to capture higher than the screen resolution you can use the CaptureFromCamera component and set that to whichever rendering resolution you want. 8K render is possible even if screen is 1080p.
Thanks,

 

What I need is to capture simultaneously main camera and UI camera in a resolution higher than my display. When I choose source as the screen it captures both cameras but in the real game window resolution. CaptureFromCamera allows to set custom resolution but it captures only one camera at once.

 

Ahh I see what you mean...
Actually it shouldn't be difficult for us to add support for that - we just need to add support to chain multiple camera renders together. Expect to see that in the next update released early next week.
Thanks,

 

Great!
BTW: This is one of the most priceless plugin for Unity IMO. Good work!

 

Hi,

I'm trying to setup a screen capture at runtime just using scripts but Unity frequently crashes with the stack trace:

0x0000000036D911A9 (lvcod64) DriverProc
0x00007FFF9A0628BC (MSVFW32) ICSendMessage
0x00007FFF9A062A58 (MSVFW32) ICOpen
0x00000000360A1D63 (AVProMovieCapture) GetEncodedSeconds

This happens sometimes in Init, sometime in DeInit and possibly in a few other places.

If it helps, I'm setting this up by:
- Adding a CaptureFromCamera and UnityAudioCapture to the main camera.
- _useMediaFoundationH264 = true,
- _outputFolderPath = ""
- _autoFilenameExtension = "mp4"
- _autoGenerateFilename = true.
- _noAudio = false
- _audioCapture = UnityAudioCapture component created earlier.
- _audioDeviceIndex = -1
- _audioDeviceName = "Unity"

I then call StartCapture() followed by StopCapture() when I'm finished.

Are there any steps I'm missing out or actions I shouldn't be performing when setting up purely from script?

Thanks,

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

The way you're using it sounds right. Can I ask - which version of Unity and AVPro Movie Capture are you using?

From the stack trace I suspect the crash is being caused by a rogue DirectShow codec. Please check which 3rd party codecs you have installed and either uninstall or update any suspicious ones.

You might also want to see if it makes any difference either building a 32-bit or 64-bit build.

If you're still having this issue then perhaps you can send us your script so we can look into it further.

Thanks,

 

Hi,

I'm currently using the free version of your plugin (downloaded this morning from the store) which I'm then going to update to paid when I get it working. Unity version is 2017.1.0f3.

I tested my script on a colleagues machine and couldn't get a crash, I've then compared DxDiag reports and we have the same DirectShow filters.

Does this help narrow down what is causing the crash?

Thanks,

Dave

 

Hmm..good to hear you compared DirectShow filters! That unfortunately deepens the mystery....
I suspect it could just be an issue with the trial version as I think the code is only in the trial version.
I'm really not sure what could be causing the crash. Did you try both a 32-bit and 64-bit build? Does it only crash with standalone builds or also in the Unity editor? Perhaps I could send you a debug build to test?
Thanks,

 

Hi,

I've only been testing in play mode in the editor, no builds as of yet. I'd be happy to try a debug build. If a fix is in the paid version I'd be happy to buy it providing we can prove the fix first.

Thanks,

Dave

 

I have a new debug build for you to test. Could you PM me with your email address so I can send it to you? It's just new DLL files for you to replace.
Thanks,

 

Hi Everyone,

AVPro Movie Capture version 3.2 has just been released!

You can find the updated version on the Asset Store here:

• Full version
• Free version (10 seconds limit recording)

and more information and demos are available on our website.

Changes include:

Upgrade Notes

• If upgrading from version 2.x then you must delete all of the files for any previous copies of AVPro Movie Capture in your project before importing this version. This is because many files have been renamed and the folder structure has changed significantly.

Improvements

• CaptureFromCamera now supports camera chains where multiple cameras contribute to the final render:
  
  
• Improved compatibility with older systems by not relying on some Media Foundation DLLs
• Added a new option “_supportTextureRecreate” which now defaults to “off” which improves performance by removing a per-frame GPU sync point. Enable this option if you need to support texture recreation during a capture (for example when the GPU device is lost due to window resize or alt-tab when using exclusive fullscreen mode)
• Improved inspector UI for audio source selection
• Added MF H.264 capture option to CaptureGUI

Bug fixes

• Fixed some ODS 360 capture settings not being applied

Thanks,

 

Thank you, it is step forward. But it does not work perfectly. I have 3 cameras in my scene: main, background and UI camera. When I hit "Find Contributing Cameras" it finds only background Camera. When I add UI Camera manually to the list it does not include UI into the captured video. I attached my UI Camera settings.

 

Interesting. Are you sure that UI camera doesn't render after "main"? Perhaps try adding UI camera as the main camera and then hit "find contributing cameras"..

Thanks,

 

Oh yes! I have to select camera with the highest Depth to capture all cameras. It works. Thank you!

 

There is a problem with UI Text component. As you can see Text renders in my Game window resolution, not in capture resolution. It changes the quality when I rescale Game window.

EDIT: But I can change the font from Dynamic to Unicode and increase Font Size. This solves the problem.

 

Glad you have it working now
What is your capture resolution, and is the text just normal uGUI Text component? I can try to replicate here and see if there is a way to fix it for Dynamic text. Also, which Unity version?

Thanks,

 

I would like to capture at 4096x2304 (which is full 4k).
The text is normal Unity GUI component.
Unity version is 2017.1.1f1
There was no problem with texts during Screen capture at 4000x2212 which is the maximum resolution I can get from my graphics card and monitor (Unity Game window takes some space)

 

Hi,

I want to use the capture mouse feature with a custom mouse texture. I just want to simulate a touch and trace using a texture with a finger pointing top left.
My problem is that I cannot align this texture in order to point exactly under the real mouse cursor. So, it looks a bit silly because this should leave a trace right under the finger but it's actually rendered pretty far.

I was hopping that setting a custom pivot for this texture would fix this but. actually it doesn't matter.

Any idea how to find a solution?

BTW, great plugin!

Thanks.

 

Hi,
I have already purchased AVPro Movie Capture plugin.
I suppose, this plugin is based on ffmpeg tool.

May I ask few questions about options and licensing:
1. What option should I use to specify what codec will be used for encoding?
2. As I see, The muxing script embeds ffmpeg? Is it Ok from ffmpeg license perspective?
3. Also, by default scripts uses H.264. As I know, it is not free. And one of options is about Open Source projects (but I'm not sure). What limitations should I consider for production ready product? Have you already met such question before?

Kevin.

 

hi AndrewRh!
I need to deploy my project on the server,but the OS of the server is windows 2012,and now the plugin doesn't work,i have installed .net framework 3.5(maybe part of this),and it still doesn't works.
AVProMovieCapturePlugin.Init() ,it throws a excepttion,is there anyway to solve this problem?

ps : windows 2012 is convenience for our server's architecture，so change the OS is not a best way.

 

Hi Kevin,
AVPro Movie Capture is not based on ffmpeg. It is based on the video codecs installed on the system, including the default ones that ship with Windows. To answer your questions:

1) It depends if you are just encoding in the Unity editor, or are building apps that are meant to encode video. For inside Unity, using the AVPro Movie Capture Window you can select the codec to use from the drop-down list. If you're building an app then in the CaptureFrom component there is an array of codec names for it to search for and use. The codec name list is in order of preference.

2) We're not using ffmpeg at all.

3) We're not legal experts. In theory if you're using the H.264 codec that is included with Windows, then you should be able to use it without issue? I'm not sure. All we do is expose the codecs that are available on the system and allow Unity apps to encode with them.

Thanks,

 

Hi,
This is an interesting issue. We would certainly like to resolve this. I'm not totally sure what could be missing. We do try to use as few dependencies as possible. Are you using the latest version of AVPro Movie Capture? Also, perhaps you could try running depends.exe (dependency walker) to see which dependencies it is missing. Please let know how it goes. If there is anything we can do to improve the compatibility we're keen to do so.

Thanks,

 

That's curious...
Also - if you want to capture higher resolution than your monitor / game window - just select "Capture From Camera" and then you can set the resolution you want it to render to.

Thanks,

 

Hi,

Please try using the script attached here. Replace the old MouseCursor.cs with this one.

It will allow you to set the pivot/hotspot position of the cursor texture.

Thanks,

 

Please could you also tell us which GPU you're running on your Windows Server machine? And if you could send us the log file please (player_log.txt) that would help us too. Thanks,

 

Hey Andrew, is there a way to playback omni directional stereo captures in Unity? Would one need AV Pro Video? Or would you need to roll your own?

 

I think Unity is coming with this feature in 2017.3....In 2017.1 and 2017.2 it is probably possible to use Unity's videoplayer, but you would have to make your own shaders to handle the stereo. Otherwise, yes AVPro Video handles it fine. There is a free demo version you can download from our website. Thanks,

 

Wow. Thanks for the quick. I have been using the free demo and I'm happy to buy if it works, but I'm struggling with the settings.

I can capture fast 360 and play it back in your Demo_360Sphere scene as an mp4 but there is a lot of warping.

When I capture as ODS and try to play back, switching the sphere's shader to your InsideSphere Unlit Stereo UV, I get stretched video with 2 copies of the scene.

Is there a doc describing the pipeline from ods capture to rendering in AVPro? Thanks!

 

Hi,

So far this has been a fantastic plugin. We are using the free version to trial it out right now (need to record VR sessions from a users point of view) and all is working great. I know you have commented on mobile support previously, just wondered if any more progress has been made on that? Currently the most viable solution on mobile seems to be Everyplay but it does not give you access to the videos!

Thanks,
Adam

 

Does this have any options for capturing video not in realtime? I've tried setting _isRealTime to false, and it will slow down the playback, but then it's also slow in the resulting video. Am I missing something?

 

Is there a way to do 180 capture?

 

Hmm we've not seen any stretching or warping.. Let us do some tests and get back to you

 

Yes we're starting to look at mobile seriously now. I don't have a timeline yet I'm afraid.

Thanks,

 

yes, setting _isRealTime to false should give you the ability render out videos. Do you mean that there is a Video in your scene that you're capturing, and the video playback speed doesn't get adjusted? If this is the case and you're using our AVPro Video plugin, then there is an option for this under "Global Settings" (a tickbox).
Thanks,

 

Currently no... This is something we will add to the list, so hopefully we can include it before the end of the year.
Thanks,

 

What I mean is the resulting recorded video, output by AVPro, is in slow motion. (If I say, crank up the resolution to something that takes longer to render)

 

Hmm that's strange..
Did you try using the built-in AVPro Movie Capture Window in Unity? It's available from the menu bar under the "Windows" menu. It should work the same, but it has a nicer UI.

Also I hope you're using the latest version (3.2).

Let me know how that works for you.

Thanks,

 

Hi Everyone,

AVPro Movie Capture version 3.3 has just been released!

You can find the updated version on the Asset Store here:

• Full version
• Free version (10 seconds limit recording)

and more information and demos are available on our website.

Changes include:

Upgrade Notes

• If upgrading from version 2.x then you must delete all of the files for any previous copies of AVPro Movie Capture in your project before importing this version. This is because many files have been renamed and the folder structure has changed significantly.

Improvements

• Major performance improvements by no longer stalling the GPU during capturing
• The mouse cursor now has an offset value for the hotspot and a scale slider

Thanks,